Woman of controversy: Williams' leadership of NAACP in S.L. earns support and criticism

For 14 years Jeanetta Williams has served as president of the Salt Lake chapter of the NAACP, a position that has earned her honors — and enemies.

That isn't surprising, given her position. What might be surprising is that her major critics come from within; they are from the black community.

Observers say she enjoys being in the spotlight as a public figure and is quick to claim credit, but she is also aloof, maintaining a veil of secrecy about herself.

Often wary, she has been known to call reporters after a news story appears and scold them for not using more of her quotes and fewer quotes from other sources.

It took nearly a year to arrange an in-depth interview with her. After answering initial phone calls and agreeing to the interview, she stopped returning calls. Then she returned a call earlier this year and agreed to meet. After the meeting, she again didn't return calls.

She arrived a half-hour late for the interview and from the start was reluctant to answer even the most basic questions.

"I don't like to get into a whole lot of personal stuff on myself," Williams says. She says she's cautious because she has had threats on her life.

With some urging, though, she gives the barest answers to simple questions about her youth, family, education, etc.

She grew up in a small Oklahoma town called Boley. Her father was a construction worker. Her mother died when Jeanetta was a girl.

Her husband, Thomas Williams, died in 1985 of what she says was a rare lung disease. They had one daughter together.

Williams says she has remarried. Asked about claims by disapproving black peers who say she is not married and that she merely lives with a man, she pauses and replies, "Well — I'm more married than not."

Her partner is Ed Lewis, president of a tri-state area for the NAACP that includes Utah, Idaho and Nevada. In other words, he's Williams' boss.

Williams attended Idaho State University because she had friends in the Pocatello area and took a job with the telephone company US WEST. Her employer transferred her to Salt Lake City in 1988. She now works for the Utah Transit Authority in community relations.

She became involved in the NAACP while in Pocatello. She says this did not stem from any personal experience with racism but because "it was a civil rights organization that I always had heard about, and I wanted to be involved."